Selling specialty food products into foodservice accounts requires a vastly different approach from the strategies used to get shelf placement in retail, said Scott Swiger, VP of business development at consulting firm JBH Advisory Group.
Swiger, a longtime veteran of the contract foodservice industry, plans to address the challenges and opportunities of supplying foodservice accounts at a workshop called The Basics: The Business of Specialty Food, starting at 8 a.m. this Saturday, June 24, at the Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center in New York. The Basics is an all-day course geared toward startups and earlier stage entrepreneurs who are still considering launching a brand, featuring founders and principals from some of the most iconic brands in specialty foods.
Before joining JBH Advisory Group, a boutique consulting firm specializing in foodservice operations and development, Swiger held management positions with several contract foodservice operators and catering companies, including Spectra, Aramark, Brulee Catering, and GuestCounts Hospitality. He recently spoke with SFA News Daily about some of the ways foodservice differs from retail when it comes to buying specialty foods.
How is foodservice different for specialty food makers who want to get into that segment of the business?
One of the things operators and chefs in foodservice are looking for is pack size. Often for home use, the pack sizes will be very small, but if you are supplying for foodservice in a stadium or a venue like that, they are looking for pack sizes they can work with for that kind of volume.
Buyers in foodservice are also looking at the cost of goods. For home use, the price point is important, but the home user is not figuring out what it costs to plate a dish. Foodservice operators are calculating the per-portion cost, and today, more than ever, the labor cost involved. They want to know how easy the product is to work with, and if they can perhaps replace something they may be doing from scratch today, and eliminate all the other ingredients as well as the labor involved in making that product from scratch.
How has the use of specialty food evolved in the foodservice channel in recent years?
Foodservice operators are looking for more convenience, but they still want things that allow them to try new, on-trend flavors. In addition to the difficulty of finding enough labor, there is also the problem of finding labor that has the right skill level. So, the ability to use a specialty product that may allow them to provide something really unique and at a high level, and allows them to do that consistently, even though the staff may not have professional culinary training, has become really important.
What other advice do you have for specialty food makers seeking to gain distribution in foodservice?
Foodservice can be complicated because there are a lot of different layers, and there can be a lot of different buyers. That can include the folks who are physically running the venue, or the building, or the school, or the hospital, as well as distributors and group purchasing organizations. You’ve got to attack it from multiple angles. There’s not necessarily one common path into large foodservice operations or large foodservice contractors. You have to be persistent and explore multiple paths into operations, and then grow from there.
How can foodservice operators leverage specialty foods to their competitive advantage?
I have seen a lot of foodservice operators partner with specialty foods that have a story to tell about environmental or social impact. Large foodservice operators like to be able to partner with those products because they are then able to tell that story within their sales materials and to their guests. It creates a halo effect to partner with the providers that are doing the right thing.
What do you look forward to at this year’s Summer Fancy Food Show?
Personally, I am always looking for things that surprise me and catch me off guard. There are staples and things that you need, but I am always looking for that thing that I never would have thought of, and then four weeks after the show, I am still talking about it because it was so different.
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